How ÖIS Is Creating a Safer Training Environment with Mobile Access

At the ÖIS complex in Gothenburg, activity is in full swing from morning to night. Every day, more than 700 players, team leaders, coaches, staff members, and visitors move through the training facility—and everyone needs proper access to the right spaces.

For Jozo Matovac, Chief Operating Officer at ÖIS Fotboll, a modern elite club is not just about what happens on the field. It’s just as important to create a safe and well-functioning environment behind the scenes.

Today, ÖIS-gården uses mobile access from Parakey, which gives the club better control over access permissions, enhanced security, and a smoother day-to-day operation. 

Key Benefits

• Full control over permissions and access
• Mobile access for players, coaches, staff, and visitors
• Reduced administrative burden related to keys
• Safer Operation of the Fitness Center

About Örgryte IS

Örgryte IS is Sweden’s oldest soccer club and was founded in 1887. In the late 1980s, the ÖIS complex was built; today, it serves as the hub for ÖIS Soccer and has grown into a modern training facility. Activities take place here every day, ranging from programs for the youngest players to men’s and women’s teams, the academy, and youth programs.

Challenge

Running an elite soccer club involves much more than what happens out on the field.

Behind the scenes of soccer lies a wide range of activities in which players, coaches, youth leaders, equipment managers, administrative staff, cleaning staff, outside vendors, and visitors need access to various parts of the facility—often at different times of the day.

With more than 700 people on the move every day, the traditional key management system eventually became difficult to handle.

"Keys kept going missing; you had to keep track of which keys opened which doors, and it turned into a lot of work and constant talk about locks and access," Jozo explains. 

At the same time, the organization is constantly changing. New players and coaches join, others leave, and visiting teams need temporary access to locker rooms and other facilities. He continues: 

"There are many coaches who need access to the Youth Center; coaches come and go, and new players join every year."

The club needed a solution that would make access as flexible as its operations.

Solution

Today, Parakey is used on about 20 doors throughout the ÖIS complex. Among other places, the entrance, locker rooms, storage rooms, equipment and staff rooms, the gym, massage and treatment rooms, and the Youth Center are all unlocked using the smartphone as the key.

Permissions can be quickly added or removed directly in Parakey Web Portal. When a new player or coach joins, an email is sent to one of the club’s three administrators, who adds the person to the portal. Similarly, permissions are removed when someone leaves.

For temporary users, such as visiting teams, access can also be time-controlled so that the right people have access to the right spaces—for a limited period, exactly when they need it: 

"It's very convenient, very simple, and requires very little effort." 

Results

Today, ÖIS has full control over which individuals have access to different parts of the facility and can easily adjust access permissions as operations change.

When we ask Jozo how much time the club saves, we get an unexpected answer: 

"To be completely honest, we don't actually save that much time, but we save an enormous amount when it comes to our safety."

That's also what Jozo keeps coming back to:

"The most important thing for us is that we feel we have control and the peace of mind that comes from knowing who has keys and where they can enter." 

When Jozo is asked if he would recommend Parakey to other clubs, he doesn't hesitate:

"I think there are many organizations facing the same challenges as we do—namely, that a large number of people need access to a large number of doors. So I can really recommend Parakey. It’s very convenient, and above all, it provides excellent control. It feels safe and secure."

For Jozo, the effect can be summed up in five words: 

"Better security with less work."